Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are considered to be a most efficient tool which is able to push economic and social development to experience significant progress and development as they offer useful services to consumers, and provide much needed employment. With this in consideration, they are useful for training, acquiring experience and technical and managerial skills. The objectives of this research are to identify the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for SMEs in Saudi Arabia. Based on the literature review, 20 factors have been identified and subsequently structured into three groups, namely entrepreneurial, enterprise and environmental factors. The study also focuses on the SMEs Support Programme by identifying the current situation and accordingly providing recommendations based on those made by the support providers. Data have been collected by utilising a mixed method approach: first, 146 postal questionnaires with SME owners/managers have been analysed by using SPSS; second, in order to gain further understanding of the situation and particular challenges, 15 in-depth interviews with support providers have been conducted; and third, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been used to analyse the pairwise comparison of the factors. The main findings of this study are that, for the CSFs for SMEs in Saudi Arabia, three factors are deemed to be important both for owners/managers and support providers. These factors are quality of the product and service, customer satisfaction, and business planning. The findings also indicate that there are many 'important support gaps' which show that existing support needs to be addressed in order to improve and develop the support structure.

<p>Despite the existence of extensive literature regarding risk management, there still seems to be lack of knowledge in identification of Critical Success Factors (CSFs) in this area. In this research Grounded Theory is implemented to identify CSFs in Risk Management Systems (RMS). Factor analysis and one-sample t-test are then used to refine and rank the CSFs based on the results of a survey which has been performed among Risk Management practitioners in various types of Swedish corporations. CSFs are defined from three different perspectives: (a) the factors that have influence on the inclination and readiness of corporation for implementing RMS. (b) the factors that are important during the design and implementation of RMS in corporation and can significantly affect the success of RMS design and implementation and (c) the factors that are crucially important to successfully run, maintain and administrate RMS after the closure of the project of RMS design and Implementation.</p><p>This systematic approach towards understanding the taxonomy of the success dimension in RMS is important for re-enforcing effective risk management practices.</p>

<p><strong>Title:</strong> Implementing an IBX e-procurement solution – are there any success factors?</p><p><strong>Subject: </strong>FE02E bachelor thesis, logistics</p><p><strong>Authors:</strong> Linus Jönsson, Emma Oscarsson, David Skoglund & Max Stafström</p><p><strong>Tutor:</strong> Roger Stokkedal</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> E-procurement, implementing, critical success factors, benefits, problems, MRO-products</p><p><strong>Background:</strong> One of the major problems that organizations face today is how to bring home savings. E-procurement solutions can be a tool to reach efficiency and reduce costs within organization. One of the biggest spend issues companies wrestle with are indirect material, also defined as MRO products (maintenance, repair, operations).</p><p><strong>Purpose:</strong> The thesis will examine why companies decide to implement an e-procurement solution and what their expectations are. The purpose of the research was to identify which the success factors are when implementing this type of solution. Eventual problems that may emerge during the implementation and benefits that the implementation might lead to, will also be presented.</p><p><strong>Methodology:</strong> The thesis has a survey design which studies variables in an e-procurement implementation. The scientific perspective is positivistic and has a deductive approach. The sample contains customers to IBX which use the entire solution, from planning to follow-up. The data has been gathered through a post-questionnaire.</p><p><strong>Result /Conclusion:</strong> When deciding to implement an e-procurement solution companies base this decision on a number of reasons. The most common reasons are to increase the internal efficiency and reduce the supplier base. There are also other encouraging reasons to the implementation which all concerns saving time and money. Once the decision has been made, expectations on the solution arise and companies expect the solution to bring benefits. Most common expectations are much alike the reasons concerning saving time and money on purchases of MRO-products. Besides the reasons and expectation companies must consider the critical success factors, both before, during and after the implementation. These factors will determine whether or not the implementation will be a success and they can be divided into factors that affect all companies and factors that just affect some. The key factors, affect all, are defining an e-procurement strategy, change management and training and education. Secondary factors will affect some companies, and depending on the situation organizations must take them into their perspective. These factors are i.e. well defined steering group and communication. If companies don´t consider the success factors problems may emerge, where change management is one of the most common problem. This is an organizationalproblem just like lack of information from external parts and lack in project management skills internally. Besides the organizational problems companies can also experience technical problems, which are directly associated to the solution that‟s implemented. Some of these problems are complex usability, complicated to communicate and integrate. By avoiding the problems companies can expect to see more benefits from the solution, the most experienced benefits are compliance savings, reduced supplier base and lowered administrative costs. These benefits mainly considers time saving and are all associated with the reasons to the implementation and expectations on the solutionResult /Conclusion: When deciding to implement an e-procurement solution companies base this decision on a number of reasons. The most common reasons are to increase the internal efficiency and reduce the supplier base. There are also other encouraging reasons to the implementation which all concerns saving time and money. Once the decision has been made, expectations on the solution arise and companies expect the solution to bring benefits. Most common expectations are much alike the reasons concerning saving time and money on purchases of MRO-products. Besides the reasons and expectation companies must consider the critical success factors, both before, during and after the implementation. These factors will determine whether or not the implementation will be a success and they can be divided into factors that affect all companies and factors that just affect some. The key factors, affect all, are defining an e-procurement strategy, change management and training and education. Secondary factors will affect some companies, and depending on the situation organizations must take them into their perspective. These factors are i.e. well defined steering group and communication. If companies don´t consider the success factors problems may emerge, where change management is one of the most common problem. This is an organizationalproblem just like lack of information from external parts and lack in project management skills internally. Besides the organizational problems companies can also experience technical problems, which are directly associated to the solution that‟s implemented. Some of these problems are complex usability, complicated to communicate and integrate. By avoiding the problems companies can expect to see more benefits from the solution, the most experienced benefits are compliance savings, reduced supplier base and lowered administrative costs. These benefits mainly considers time saving and are all associated with the reasons to the implementation and expectations on the solution.</p>

Improvement of performance has become ever more critical to construction project success and has been subject to a considerable amount of research and attention over the past two decades. In this regard, the Saudi Ministry of Interior (SMoI) has adopted a new approach - Standard Design Model (SDM) - for the development of its construction programme to successfully manage its complex project portfolio and improve project performance. The SMoI-SDM approach is based on the standardisation of design, material specifications, contract documents and processes. It is anticipated that many lessons will be learnt due to the re-use of SDMs for future projects as well as sharing learning between on-going projects, thus leading to continuous project performance improvement. The aim of this research is to develop a framework for improving the performance of SDMs in SMoI projects. A qualitative case study approach was adopted to provide an in-depth insight into the current performance of SDM projects and identify critical success factors (CSFs) affecting the process of improvement of SDMs project performance. Four case studies were selected involving two on-going and two completed projects. Three key themes were identified from the case studies analysis; these are: adaptability of SDMs to context; contract management; and construction management. Consequently, a framework was developed to improve SDM projects performance as well as the expected performance improvement curve that results from the cumulative learning and experience. The framework validation was conducted through a workshop involving the same stakeholders who participated in the case studies, in which the feedback on possible improvements to the framework was obtained. The framework demonstrated its practicality, clarity and appropriateness for use across the SDM projects.Significantly, this research has the potential to direct standardisation of design and process in construction projects in particular in the public sector and could help achieve a sustained project performance improvement in the Saudi construction industry.

Detta arbete har som syfte att undersöka samband mellan kritiska framgångsfaktorer och krav rörande dokumenthantering. Detta görs för att framgångsfaktorer är något som ökar chanserna för ett lyckat resultat om de är uppfyllda och går det redan i kravfasen att uppfylla dessa kan det spara både tid och pengar. Inledningsvis kommer en litteraturstudie att samla in vilka kritiska framgångsfaktorer det kan finnas gällande dokumenthantering, därefter kommer en fallstudie att genomföras på en verksamhet inom byggbranschen med syfte att reda ut vilka krav de ställer på sin dokumenthantering och slutligen kommer en jämförelse mellan dessa två att göras av författaren till denna rapport med målet att finna och presentera samband. Resultaten visar att det finns ett tydligt samband mellan vissa krav och vissa framgångsfaktorer. Några av kraven uppfyller även flera framgångsfaktorer och vice versa. T ex: Kravet är en ”Väldefinierad teknikdisciplin” och framgångsfaktorerna som uppfylls är ”Definierad lagringsrutin”, ”Användarinvolvering”, ”Tillit till systemet” och ”Träning och utbildning av användare”. / This report is investigating the relation between critical success factors and requirements on document management. The purpose to know that is if a critical success factors are met by a requirement, the chances to succeed increase and in the long runt hat can save both time and money. Initially a literature research will be conducted to sort out the critical success factors, thereafter a case study will collect the requirements from a business in the constructing sector and finally a comparison between these results will be conducted of the author. The results show that there is a relation between certain factors and certain requirements. Some requirements even fulfil more than one factor and vice versa. For example: the requirement ”Well defined engineering discipline” fulfils ”Defined storage routine”, ”User involvement”, ”Trust to the system” and ”Training and education of users”. Keywords: Relations, Requirements, Critical success factors, Document Management.

La presente investigación, es de naturaleza exploratoria no experimental, de enfoque mixto; así mismo, está basada en un tema de percepción y el objetivo es validar que la marca posicionada en el país de origen, calidad del producto y servicio, ubicación estratégica y realizar una eficiente transferencia del know how, son percibidos por los franquiciados como factores de éxito para el ingreso de las franquicias peruanas de sector gastronómico al mercado de Chile, en las ciudades de Santiago de Chile y Antofagasta, al 2018. Para lograr el objetivo, se recurrió a la revisión de la literatura existente. Así mismo, se realizó una entrevista a David Edery Muñoz como experto; quien viene trabajando, hace varios años, con empresas peruanas que buscan internacionalizarse bajo el modelo de franquicias, actualmente se desempeña como Gerente de Exportación de Servicios en PROMPERU; los alcances brindados por el experto se adicionaron a las respuestas obtenidas en las entrevistas a los franquiciadores peruanos del sector gastronomía, como lo son: China Wok, Pardo´s Chicken y Hanzo, el filtro de validación fue realizar encuestas estructuradas vía internet (Google Foms) a los franquiciados en el país de Chile en las ciudades de Santiago de Chile y Antofagasta. Finalmente, se validó que calidad del producto y servicio, ubicación estratégica y realizar una eficiente transferencia del know how, son percibidos por los franquiciados como factores de éxito para el ingreso de las franquicias peruanas de sector gastronómico al mercado de Chile, en las ciudades de Santiago de Chile y Antofagasta, al 2018. Además, mediante el análisis factorial se logró identificar tres perfiles de franquiciados en el mercado de Chile; el primer perfil, corresponde a un franquiciado operativo, el segundo a un franquiciado marketero y finalmente a un franquiciado estratega. / The franchise is a business development strategy, both nationally and internationally, which has become more relevant in recent years. Many of the entrepreneurs are taking this business model as a reference as one of the first options to expand to international markets. The present investigation is based on a theme the perception and the objective is to validate that the brand positioned in the country of origin, the quality of the product and the service, the location and an efficient transfer of know-how is made, are perceived by the franchisees as success factors for the entrance to the Peruvian franchises of the gastronomic sector in the Chilean market, in the cities of Santiago de Chile and Antofagasta, to 2018. To achieve the objective of this research, existing literature was reviewed. Likewise, David Edery Muñoz was interviewed, as an expert; who has been working for several years with Peruvian companies seeking to internationalize under the franchise model, currently serving as service export managers in PROMPERU, the scope of the experts was added to the answers in the interviews with the Peruvian franchisors of the gastronomy sector, such as: China Wok, Pardo's Chicken and Hanzo, the validation filter was made in the franchisees in Chile, in the city of Santiago de Chile and Antofagasta. Through a factorial analysis, 3 profiles of franchisees are identified in the Chilean market. The first profile is a franchisee oriented to the operational and functional part of the franchise, the second profile shows a franchisee oriented to the concept of the franchised brand, the objectives of the franchisor and finally the third profile is a franchisee oriented to strategy and sustainability of the franchise in the long term. / Tesis

Background. It is significant to constantly change and improve the software process to thrive in the software market with rapidly changing requirement and situation. However, very small entities(VSEs) have difficulties to adopt software process improvement that have played an important role in software market, because they usually have some unique characteristics, such as informal and fewer documents, tight budget, and less human resources. Therefore, we believe it is necessary to study factors that are crucial to successful conducting SPI, to help inexperienced VSEs with limited resource implement SPI with reasonable cost. Objectives. The overall aim of our research is to analyse critical success factors about successfully conduct software process improvement for Very Small Entities. The objectives are based on the aim as following: 1) Identifying the special characteristics of VSEs which related to conducting SPI, 2) Identifying the state-of-the-art critical success factors when VSEs conducting SPI both in literature and practice: verifying and prioritizing the factors, and 3) Investigating the strategies that VSEs can take in order to successfully implement SPI. Methods. In order to investigate the critical factors and barriers need to focus and avoid during the improvement, we implemented a systematic literature review as the first phase. Then a survey questionnaire as the second phase to validate the results gained from the systematic literature review through consulting industrial software engineers. Results. The final result includes 80 success factors which have been mentioned at least once in the primary studies, a few characteristics of VSEs and strategies for SPI in VSEs. Among the 80 factors, we chose 29 factors as CSFs that were mentioned more than three times, then selected the first 15 CSFs as survey questions material. Through the survey, we gathered the evaluation of all factors from two areas and some suggestion or opinion of SPI in VSEs, explained the 29 CSFs and two ranking tables about top factors from the SLR and the survey, discussed 14 CSFs from both ranking tables, then provided specific strategies for each of the common 8 factors. Conclusions. For helping VSEs that intend to conduct SPI with limited resources, we answered our research questions through SLR and Survey, found 29 state-of-the-art success factors of SPI in VSEs, ranked 15 of them and provided a description, discussion, and strategies. Selected and prioritised success factors would be supportive for VSEs to ration their budget. Furthermore, we hope we can inspire VSEs who are having trouble to implement SPI by providing strategies.

Technical developments are increasing at an accelerated rate, which means that IT service providers must focus on customer relationships and the quality of services they provide in the same way they handle their strategic features and processes. The management of IT services is often related to IT Service Management (ITSM) that helps IT organizations become more adaptable, flexible, cost-effective and service-oriented. ITIL is the most accepted and used process reference model within ITSM. However, many organizations experience difficulties in implementing the framework. Much of ITIL's research is about understanding, identifying and determining which factors have the greatest impact on a successful implementation. Previous research shows that there are three key aspects that all success factors fall within: senior management involvement, organizational commitment and group efficiency. Much of the research, however, has a qualitative character and takes the form of case studies, which are limited in their contributions. However, several case studies combined together can contribute to an increased understanding in the field because they can confirm or contradict other studies. This study aims to explore whether and, if so, how the above-mentioned aspects have influenced an ITIL implementation on a medium-sized IT company. The method used was a qualitative method that took the form of a case study and with semi-structured interviews, it revealed that all aspects affected the implementation in different ways and that there was an interaction between them. The senior management involvement influenced the implementation process by providing the project group with support in the form of necessary resources, enabling implementation. The management's absence also affected the implementation process, more specifically its scope, which made process use being limited to only one specific customer at the beginning, but also the use of inappropriate tools for the implemented processes. Group efficiency had influenced the implementation process, with an emphasis on understanding why the changing work methods results in better structure. This understanding was valued higher than the "traditional hard education", but also experience and knowledge in the field of work where the process acts, was considered a contributing factor. Understanding that change in work methods leads to better structure established an organizational commitment. This research contributes with increased knowledge of implementation factors in ITIL.

A história dos sistemas ERP tem início nos anos 90 com sua adoção por grandes corporações. Seu uso tem se intensificado, bem como suas funcionalidades complementares, com o objetivo de integrar os processos de gestão da empresa dentro e fora do espaço físico tradicional. Já sua adoção pelas organizações tem sido alavancada com objetivo de redução de custos, mas, justamente o custo de sua implantação tem sido um limitador. A possibilidade de utilização do ERP em cloud computing se mostra uma alternativa viável, pois reduz uma série de custos da implantação. No entanto, a implantação do ERP em cloud computing traz influências sobre o formato em que o ERP é implantado, bem como modifica os fatores relevantes (críticos para o sucesso) da sua implantação e utilização. Este trabalho analisa os fatores críticos de sucesso existentes na literatura atual e como estes foram relevantes em implantações feitas em cloud computing nas 3 empresas estudadas. Trata-se então de um estudo de casos realizado a partir de um roteiro de entrevistas, aplicado aos responsáveis pela implantação interna e externamente em três empresas brasileiras de ramos de atuação e sistemas implantados diferentes. Este trabalho apresenta conceitos relacionados aos sistemas ERP e os fatores críticos de sucesso disponíveis na literatura, bem como uma caracterização deste novo ambiente de cloud computing e a relação existente com implantações de ERP já registrados. A partir destes resultados outros estudos podem acompanhar a evolução de cloud computing ligado ao ERP ou a partir de uma base instalada maior, segmentar as análises e até mesmo consolidar metodologias de implantação para este novo formato. Por se tratar de um estudo de caso, as conclusões não podem ser generalizadas para todas as organizações, além disso, a existência de poucos fornecedores e poucas implantações de ERP no formato cloud computing, tratando-se de uma tecnologia muito recente, conferem outra limitação para este estudo. / The history of ERP\'s systems starts in 90 years with the adoption by large corporations. Its use has intensified since then as well as additional features, in order to integrate the company\'s management processes within and outside the traditional physical space. Since its adoption by organizations have been leveraged in order to reduce costs, but, just the cost of its implementation has been a limiter. The usability of ERP on cloud computing proves a viable alternative because it reduces a number of deployment costs. However, the implementation of ERP in cloud computing brings influences on the format in which the ERP is implemented, as well as modify the relevant factors (critical success) of their deployment and use. This paper analyzes the critical success factors in the existing literature and how these were relevant in cloud computing deployments made in 3 companies studied. It is then a case study carried out from a set of interviews applied to those responsible for implementing internally and externally in three Brazilian companies midsize segments of operation and different systems deployed. This paper presents concepts related to ERP systems and the critical success factors available in the literature, as well as a characterization of this new cloud computing environment and the relationship with existing ERP implementations already registered. From these results, other studies may follow the evolution of cloud computing ERP connected to or from a larger installed base, segment analysis and even consolidate deployment methodologies for this new format. Because it is a case study, the findings can\'t be generalized to all organizations, moreover, that there are few suppliers and few ERP implementations in the format cloud computing, as it is a very recent technology, provide another limitation for this study.

Os projetos de desenvolvimento realizados em colaboração são fundamentais para que as empresas de máquinas agrícolas consigam aumentar o grau de inovação em produtos, permitindo-as acompanhar os novos desafios de um mercado mais competitivo. Há na literatura vários trabalhos que identificam fatores críticos de sucesso (FCS) para projetos colaborativos, porém, não há muitos estudos sobre a verificação desses fatores no Brasil, em especial na indústria de máquinas agrícolas (IMA). Este trabalho tem como objetivo verificar se os FCS identificados na literatura poderiam ser empregados nesse contexto. Empreendeu-se uma revisão bibliográfica para identificar os fatores críticos de sucesso em projetos colaborativos de desenvolvimento de produtos e uma revisão sobre indústria de máquinas agrícolas (IMA), de forma a entender as especificidades desse setor no Brasil. Em seguida, realizou-se um levantamento em uma empresa do setor, com nível de maturidade elevado em desenvolvimento de produto, medido conforme Simões (2007), para verificar se os FCS identificados poderiam ser utilizados em levantamentos no setor e verificar se não havia outros fatores a serem considerados, específicos para o segmento e região. Utilizou-se o método do estudo de caso único, do tipo incorporado. A unidade de análise é constituída por projetos do tipo colaborativo, realizados com sucesso pela empresa. Foram analisados dois projetos de produtos inovadores, com diferentes tipos de parceiro: um com um cliente e outro com um fornecedor. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevistas e o instrumento de pesquisa é um roteiro. As instalações da empresa foram visitadas com o objetivo de conhecer os projetos analisados. Como resultado afirma-se que há fatores descritos na literatura que podem não ser críticos; indica-se a existência de novos FCS e reforça-se a importância dos fatores ligados à garantia de igualdade e fatores universais de sucesso. A contribuição do trabalho é uma lista de fatores críticos de sucesso que podem servir como passo inicial para levantamentos gerais de campo no setor industrial estudado. / The collaborative projects of development are one of the main tools in order to agricultural machines companies get to increase the innovation degree in products, allowing them to follow the new challenges of a more competitive market. There is in the literature several works that identify critical success factors (CSF) for collaborative projects; however, there are not many studies about the verification of those factors in Brazil, especially in the agricultural machinery industry. The aim of this work is to verify if identified CSF in the literature could be used in that context. A bibliographical revision was undertaken to identify the \"critical success factors\" in collaborative projects of development of products and a revision on agricultural machines industry in order to understand the specificities of that section in Brazil. After that it has taken place a survey in a company of that sector, with high level of maturity in development of measured product according to Simões (2007), to verify if identified CSF could be used in surveys in that sector and to verify if there were any other factors to be considered, specific for that segment and field. A case study was used and the units of analysis are collaborative projects accomplished successfully by the company. Two projects development of products were analyzed, with different kinds of partner: one with a customer and the other with a supplying company. Besides the interviews it has taken visits to the companies in order to know the analyzed projects. There are factors described that could not be critical; the results indicate the existence of new critical factors and they confirm the importance of equality and universal factors as critical for collaborative projects. The main contribution of these projects is a list of critical factors of success that one can serve as initial step for general survey in this field.